Virmire
by Medea Jade
Summary: Over 100 years have passed since Shepherd fought Saren on Virmire. Now irrelevant given the ending of the series, but I still like the beginning so I am going to keep it posted.
1. Chapter 1

**Virmire**

"We could still go back," I practically shouted at him.

"And go where?" His voice remained calm and low, making me a little bit crazier.

"I don't care. Anywhere," I waved my hands in the air, knowing what an idiot I looked like. "Earth, The Citadel, even Eden Prime. Just away from this place."

He rose from his seat in the regal manor that used to make me feel so… so proud to be his wife. Now it only felt patronizing. He crossed the room and placed his large hands on my shoulders, making me feel more trapped than this stone carved palace ever could.

"Snow," he said with a deep sigh. "I've made a commitment here on Virmire. I can't leave."

"You committed you money, Ben. Not our lives." I lowered my voice to reduce the chances I might hear the word hysteria, but I didn't stop. "I had no idea what I was getting into when you moved us here. I saw the pictures taken to show the public. I didn't know about the storms and the toxic winds."

"And if you had known?" he interrupted, daring me to say it.

My answer should have been 'I wouldn't have come'. I should have stood up to him. But I loved him. We'd been together since I was sixteen. Twenty-seven years. And there was quite easily another hundred years to come. So I made peace with it. Or at least I tried.

"I would have asked for shore leave," I joked, teasing his military background, hoping to lighten the mood.

He chuckled and kissed the top of my head, wrapping his arms around me. His bare chest was warm through the arasilk of my dress and I could feel the rough calluses of his palms against my back. I rested my head on his shoulder and tried to find it in me not to be angry.

Ben was a good man. Honest and caring. He ran his lucrative empire with morals and ethics. Something most other businessmen in Citadel Space could not claim. He was a paragon of his kind and I could never hope to find a better husband. He deserved my support.

"I'm sorry, Ben," I said in a quiet voice. "It's just so hard here."

He stepped out of my embrace and looked down at me with an eyebrow raised. "What, my love, is difficult? You've got the best home that money can buy. All the creature comforts that anyone on a developed planet could ask for. What else do you need?"

"How about friends for starters?" This I could argue with him. He was never around, and the men and women were hired to serve and guard us. They were paid well, but friendship was not included in that fee. Of course I was friendly with all of them, they were good people, but we weren't friends. They couldn't serve by day and play confident by night.

"I'm alone most of the time, Ben. I'd be happier living on a bungalow on Earth." I was close to tears, most of them from guilt. I felt so rotten laying this all on him.

"Snowy, I'm sorry. I had no idea you were so unhappy." He returned to his seat on the edge of the bed. His shoulders sagged over his broad chest. "What can I do to make things better for you?"

"You could be around more often for starters." I joined him on the bed, leaning into him and looping an arm through the crook of his elbow. "I've always been happy with just you for company."

He didn't answer me right away. Had I been another woman and he another man, I might have thought he was having an affair, but we were better than that. The standards he stuck to in business were an extension of those he held in his personal life. A contract was a contract. Besides, our love for each had not dimmed over the years. If anything it was more comfortable, more solid.

When he rose, he took me by the hand and led me towards the doors.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I want to show you something."

I followed him out the doors onto the terrace. Every time I walked out, I tried to think of something else to call it other than a terrace because that really wasn't what it was.

Our house was built into one of the many basalt pillars dotting the tropical coastline. It was set back in a cove, far enough away from the breakwater that the violent waves caused by so many storms didn't touch it, but close enough that we could still enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean. A boardwalk made of native, rot resistant wood lead up to our main entrance at the base of the pillar. The door there was nothing elegant. It was build to withstand massive amount of force, both kinetic and biotic, though we'd never had to put its strength to the test.

Once through the door you followed a tunnel carved around the outside of the pillar. It was functional only until you reached the second floor, or what would have been the second floor if our home had not been a spiral. When you reached that point the whole outside wall of the tunnel disappeared and was open to the elements. There were permaglass windows and blasts shields that would roll down out of the rock at the push of a button, but the rest of the time it was a beautiful walk through greenery and fresh air.

The various rooms of our homes branched off from this spiraling walkway into the centre of the pillar. Our kitchens and formal (completely unused) dining room were on the first floor. The great room above, built into a natural bubble in the cooled magma, was where we did most of our living. Unlike other rooms, it had a large window on the far wall opposite the terrace. The view was unparalleled. When one of the many vicious thunderstorms rolled in off the ocean, this was where I liked to be. Snuggled up on my plush couch with a good holobook. If I was going to live on a planet where 75% of the weather was thunderstorms, I might as well enjoy it.

Further up the tower was a guest suite, also unused, our spa-like bathroom, our bedroom, my library, and at the very top just below the small landing pad, Ben's office. I sometimes argued with him that our bedroom should be at the top, but he had so many satellite uplinks and comm arrays that the top was really the only place.

This was we were headed now. I didn't go to his office very often. Not because he didn't want me there, but because it bored me. I didn't understand the vid screens with their streams of continuously flowing data, or the charts projected holographically above his desk. This was his domain. I was only Snowdonia March, renowned writer and philanthropist, now disappeared from society.

When we entered Ben waved me over to a round wooden table. At its centre was a small, metal dome. I stood at the edge and waited while Ben went around to the complicated bank of controls behind his main desk. First he lowered the blackout panels over the terrace doors and the few small windows. The room was lit now by only the suffused glow of red lights meant to help the eyes adjust to the dark. What appeared next was something I did recognize.

A holographic map of the planet appeared above the table in vivid blues and lush greens. It rotated slowly on its axis showing us the vast polar oceans and main continents at the equator surrounded by many atolls and islets. Several key points were marked on the map. Our home was one of them, as well the space port further to the east and the staging ground for the regeneration project my Ben was spearheading.

Species across the galaxy had had their sights set on Virmire for colonization, but so far only humanity had been brave enough to attempt it. Of course that was long after the Battle of Hoc, where Alliance Commander and Spectre, Shepherd, detonated a nuclear device, stopping the rogue Spectre, Saren, from creating an army of Krogan. Undoing the damage caused by that action was the main reason for Ben's presence on the planet.

Though the war had taken place over a century ago, the fallout from that detonation still plagued the planet, but not as much as it could have. The flora and fauna of Virmire proved to be some of the most resilient and aggressive in known space. It resisted the effects of the fallout and suffered virtually no mutation. The only area that still hurt was a space of roughly 100km around the centre of the explosion. This was the source of the toxic storms that spun around the planet making colonization nearly impossible.

After the borders of the Terminus systems were pushed back by the conjoined efforts of Alliance and Turnian Navies, Virmire became the next Eden Prime. It was to be the third major colonization effort by humanity. But the toxic storms made it impossible. People were just not as tough as the life on Virmire.

"What are we looking at?" I asked as a red blur appeared on the opposite side of the planet to our home.

"That," Ben said as he walked back around his desk to stand at my side, "is a toxin read out of the last storm to circle the planet. He aimed a pen-like remote at the hologram and I watched as the red blossomed and headed east, like a plume of ash from a volcano. It swept over islands and around the globe in mere minutes.

"Of course, that's sped up significantly," he explained. "You know how long those storms can last.

Indeed, they could last days. Days that I was trapped in my tower with no sunlight or fresh air because the blast shields all had to be lowered to prevent toxins from seeping through the permaglass.

"But you get the idea," he continued. "The storm goes around until tires itself out, roughly around the same place it started, and then we wait for the residue of it to dissipate. Now, remembering what you saw, I want you to watch this one from about a month ago. It blew around only weeks before the one that we just watched."

He clicked the remote again and a similar image appeared on the hologram. Only this time the red cloud blotted out nearly everything. The coastlines disappeared, the larger islands further out in the water were obscured and when it was gone, the residual toxins lingered far longer than the more recent storms had.

Ben leaned in close to me and kissed me on the cheek as I took in what this image meant.

"That, my lovely Snow, is why I have to be away. Why I have to be out there. We are making progress. The shield wall is working. The storms are weaker and the residue of them hardly lingers longer than a day now. We won't know for sure until we can measure another storm, but things are certainly looking up."

I spun around to face him, taking in the enormous grin on his face and the sparkle in his eyes. This was his baby. This is what he was doing in Virmire, spending all of his hard earned money on, and it was finally paying off. I swung my arms around his neck and kissed him repeatedly.

"That's wonderful, Ben. Just wonderful," I said between kisses.

"Do you understand now?" he asked.

I did understand. Although he might not have been doing the work himself, he was a source of inspiration to the scientists, technicians, and everyone else involved with this monumental project. Ben knew all of them personally. He conferred with all of them on a daily basis. He played sounding board when one of them needed to work through an idea. He was father to all these people. They needed him, and more was at stake through them than me.

"I understand, Ben. And I am proud of you."

He hugged me tighter and let the smile drift from my face. I understood, but that didn't mean I'd miss him any less. I'd have to find a way to be happy here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Virmire - Part 2**

I stood at the edge of the boardwalk where it met the sandy beach, and watched my husband lift his bags into the back of his personal ARV. He could easily have had someone drive him, or called for a low orbit shuttle to bring him around to the other side of the planet, but he preferred to get himself to work. He followed the coastline, weaving though sharp walled, watery canyons and zipping along the surface of the ocean where there was no beach to follow.

His Air Repulsion Vehicle was top of the line. It was designed for use on water worlds were travel over land was difficult. Virmire's thick jungles and many deep gorges made for a nightmarish trip in land vehicles. It only made sense to use the water to our advantage.

Ben finished with his bags and turned to walk casually over the sand towards me. I uncrossed my arm and tried to smile. Truthfully, I was close to tears at seeing him go off again. He could see that and tilted my chin up, forcing me to look at him.

"I won't be gone long, Snow," he told me, with a careful smile. "We are having a conference with the council about our progress and then things slow down for a while. We won't be continuing with construction of the kinetic barriers until we've measured another storm. I'll be home in a few days."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine," I lied. "I hope the meeting goes well. Give my regards to the council."

We kissed, and I was glad when he ended it, because I knew I would not have been able to. He was so much stronger than me. The side panel of the vehicle lifted and Ben sunk comfortably into his seat. I watched as he worked the controls and the vessel rose a few feet off the ground sending eddies of sand swirling about my feet. He turned and grinned at me through the window, blew me a kiss, waved and went whizzing off over the shallow water of the cove.

I stood there looking out of over the water for a long time after he disappeared around the cliff and out into open water, waiting for the high pitched whine of his engine to fade away. It was a clear and cloudless day. Far off over the water I could see the tops of storm clouds building on the horizon and knew that I would be in for a show later in the afternoon.

Determined not to think about all the things I was unhappy about, I kicked off my sandals and stepped off the boardwalk and onto the beach. The sand was edging towards hot already. There was little wind today to cool it off. But still, it was lovely between the toes and I walked a good distance away from the pillar, revelling in the feeling. I stopped and gazed up at the sky just in time to see a flock of those huge, leathery winged birds soar over. I realized I had no idea what they were called. Did they even have names yet?

There was no sentient life on the planet that we were aware of, though the vast depths of the oceans had yet to be explored. Several thousand years ago, the Asari had colonized a planet only to discover one hundred years later that it as already occupied by the Dendora, a minor species who willingly joined Citadel space, but only once the Asari left their planet. Of course the Asari did, I wondered if a similar story might take place here.

I hoped not. Humanity didn't have the luxury of hundreds of years the way so many other species did. Things had to get done in a lifetime or risk not getting done at all. Of course humans now lived nearly hundred years longer than they once did, but it was still nothing compared to the Asari, who were known to live for over a thousand years.

Suddenly, I had a brainwave. Was there any reason that I couldn't start naming things? Sure, everything discovered so far had been catalogued and given scientific names, but no one called a dog _Canis lupis_ _familiaris_. I was a writer. It wasn't a skill that just went away because I was now living on some backwater planet. Had I just thought of something to occupy my time?

I knew it wasn't much, but I was determined to keep my head up. All those vid files Ben had left for me, snapshot images of strange ocean creatures and brilliant winged avian, I now had a reason to look at them. I wasn't allowed to go out exploring on my own, a condition of living on a planet that was not technically colonized yet, but Ben wasn't the only one in this relationship with money. I had quite a fortune of my own and now I had something to spend it on. Remote aerial camera droned, submersibles, even the means to broadcast my findings to the rest of Citadel Space.

As the possibilities whirled through my mind, I found myself stepping out into the warm, shallow water of the cove. Virmire had no moons and therefore had no tides, so water in the inlets and channels tended to collect the heat of the day and retain it. The constant thunderstorms were what replenished things and kept the natural cycles of the planet active. The amount of life that existed in these shallows alone was staggering.

I was knee deep in the water when I stopped. There was a noise behind me. A splashing sound that seemed to be headed towards me. I turned and found one of those bizarre, four-legged creatures wading in my general direction.

It was tall, almost reaching my chin, smaller than some of the ones Ben had seen that were easily over two meters tall. As always, the first image that came to mind was of a table. It head, or what I assumed was a head, was flat and round. From the base of that head, or whatever, was what I guessed was body, though there wasn't much of it. It seemed to be merely an anchor for its four solid legs. The legs were sturdy and placed evenly around the body, meaning it could go in any direction it pleased. They were tipped with sharp points, and though I had never seen one eat, I guess it used these to spear prey.

I had never seen one this close before. They were not shy and had always seemed to be unaware of what went on around them, I just had never bothered to try to get a good look. Now, I edged closer, trying to find the creature's face. I noticed now that what we had always thought was a hard carapace, like a crabs, was really leather-like skin. The only places that seemed hard were the lower portions of its legs. I'd always just assumed they were larger version of the crustaceans on Earth. Maybe reading the classification reports would be useful after all, even if it was a bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo.

Slowly, I circled around the creature, studying it closely. I went around it twice before finally coming to the realization that it had no face. It had no eyes, ears, nose or mouth that I could discern. I had seen thousands of species in my years living on the Citadel and the only other one I had seen that lacked these features were the Hanar, but it was easy to ignore that fact due to the technology they used that allowed their usually silent communication to be heard.

This creature was silent. Completely silent. The only sounds that came from this animal was the gentle splashing as it moved smoothly through the water. I wonder how it communicated with others of its kind, or if it did at all. Nothing seemed to spook them even when one of their numbers was killed in close proximity, according to Ben. And they were easily killed. We'd learned quickly to be careful around them because one accidental blow would cause them to explode into a pulpy mess. I recalled Ben's guilt when, in our first weeks here, we were skipping rocks across the water and one struck a creature. One second it was there, the next it was gone. How fragile life could be.

I wondered if anyone had ever had skin on skin contact with them. One thing I did know about them was that thus far no attempt at study beyond observation had been made due to their delicate nature. On a sudden whim I reach out a hand to touch the creature's smooth, leathery head. It was surprisingly cool considering the heat of the day. It was also beautifully smooth, like velvet or arasilk. There was also a slight tingle in my fingers as I stroked the top of the flatness.

Without warning, the tingle turned to a burn and shot up the length of my arm. My head was filled with intense images for a brief moment before the burning tingling disappeared and I was able to take a step back.

Fearfully, I moved back a little further, retreating away from the creature and back to the beach. I studied my finger tips and saw no evidence of damage. The images I had seen lingered in my head and I closed my eyes to focus on them and was surprised by what I saw. Myself. It was me standing in the water with my arm outstretched. It was a strange image to perceive as there was no colour or texture, simply existence. I didn't know of any other way to explain it.

But that wasn't all. There was also a feeling with the image. One of wonder and fascination. Exactly what I had been feeling as I put my hand out to touch the creature.

I snapped my eyes open and found the creature had come closer, seemingly aware of another's presence for the first time. As I watched, it did something that I had never seen one of these animals do. It lowered itself onto two legs, almost like a bow, and turned its body back and forth.

What on Earth was it doing? Did it want me to touch it again? Was it trying to communicate? Not wishing to walk away from such an opportunity, I took a tentative step forward. When I was within arms reach again, I stretched out my hand and then stopped when I felt the same tingling start again in my finger tips.

This time the images came more slowly, rather than in one shocking burst. Then I realized what I was really experiencing. I was seeing the world through the mind of the creature. It saw through emotions. It formed images based on the feelings coming from a person. No wonder it had been oblivious to me before. It needed contact to create a link. After that it could send its own emotions to me. It felt welcoming and happy, and my heart burst with joy as I communed with this creature on such a personal level.

How long this exchange lasted I will never know, but it changed me. I had someone else to exist with.


End file.
